‘Revolutionary’ ads drawing industry praise

From Hartford Business.com: ‘Revolutionary’ ads drawing industry praise

“Unless your campaign has a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night,” David Ogilvy wrote in his book, “Confessions of an Advertising Man.”

What’s true for businesses certainly applies to the state of Connecticut’s two-year, ooh_1_WEB$27 million tourism initiative. The first-year spending of $15 million includes the new, much-discussed brand campaign titled “Still Revolutionary.”

The tagline is undoubtedly big and grand — to inspire tourists to explore the state’s many revolutionary aspects, past and present. The concept has received two thumbs up from several creative heads of local advertising agencies as well as from several of the state’s museum educators and historians.

The catch, they say, lies in how the idea is going to be conveyed to a large andMaria Miranda, creative director, Miranda Creative diverse audience ranging from state residents to potential tourists from outside the state and prospective businesses considering relocating here.

The messaging of course builds upon the Nutmeg State’s unique place in early American history.

“Connecticut in many ways was revolutionary as a colony. When most colonies depended upon a charter for their legitimacy, in its Fundamental Orders of 1639, Connecticut mentioned no allegiance to the crown. That itself was revolutionary for its time,” said Walter Woodward, the state historian. “The royal charter of 1662 gave Connecticut virtual political independence well before the American Revolution.”

Woodward points out that the tagline implies other revolutionary aspects — the machine tool industry that developed in Hartford in the 19th century, Samuel Colt’s inventions, Mark Twain’s writing, the birth of pioneering technologies in aviation. It’s a long list of firsts.

“All of us at the Mark Twain House & Museum are pleased that the state has moved Jeffrey L. Nichols, executive director, Mark Twain House & Museumso quickly to develop and implement its new branding strategy,” said Jeffrey L. Nichols, executive director. “I do see Connecticut as a revolutionary place, and certainly Mark Twain was a revolutionary writer and provocateur.”

The museum is set to incorporate the state’s new logo into its marketing material.

Maria Miranda, creative director at Miranda Creative in Norwich, said the forward momentum of the messaging is clearly seen in the two-minute video clip, now on TV and also available on You Tube.

“The images play out very well given the video’s emphasis of Americana, going into the Olympics,” she said, alluding to the end of the ad. A young girl proudly waves a flag fashioned from a beach towel, implying her aspiration to become an Olympic athlete.

Miranda said the tagline has a broad-based opportunity to use the phrase “revolutionary” in a modern context. She offered as an example the state’s rich American Nouveau cuisine.

“The brand fits well with the message we at the Connecticut Historical Society Kate Steinway, executive director, Connecticut Historical Societyconsistently try to shout, which is that Connecticut people are resourceful, imaginative, purposeful, adaptable, responsive to change, and often ahead of the curve — so those are the characteristics that ‘Still Revolutionary’ brings to my mind,” said Kate Steinway, the society’s executive director.

But there are huge challenges in conveying this multi-dimensional message comprising history and also revolution in art, writing, industry, food, you name it.

Moreover, focus group studies of 150 people in Connecticut and also Boston, Philadelphia, New Jersey and Austin prior to the campaign revealed that few people knew about all of this. The groups consisted of individuals from diverse backgrounds and age groups, earning an average household income of $70,000 — the category that is expected to spend their money here.

“The similarities were greater than the differences among the focus groups in Connecticut and outside. Participants basically knew nothing about Connecticut. Even residents didn’t know much beyond their towns,” said Kip Bergstrom, Deputy Commissioner at the Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD). “This is the consequence of the state not having marketed itself for more than two years.”

“Cutting the budget to $1 was not a good idea at any time, since we want people to Narasimhan Srinivasan, associate professor of marketing at the University of Connecticutvisit and spend their money in our state. Advertising works,” said Narasimhan Srinivasan, associate professor of marketing at the University of Connecticut, alluding to the downsizing in the state’s tourism budget by the previous administration.

A study conducted in 2011 by the University of Connecticut’s Center for Economic Analysis found that the state generates $11.5 billion each year in the form of tourism revenue and $1.15 billion in state and local taxes. The travel and tourism industry creates more than 110,000 jobs, which accounts for 6.5 percent of the total employment.

Nationwide, states have on average increased their tourism budget by 10 percent, said Cathy Keefe, a spokeswoman from the U.S. Travel Association.

“We’re seeing more people travel within the U.S. and people’s travel intentions are the highest it has ever been in two years,” she said.

The campaign will spread across media channels ranging from print, TV, billboards and social media to advertisements at railways stations in New York and Philadelphia.

Bergstrom said return on investments will be measured by Longwoods International, which estimates that the first-year spending of $15 million — which includes media buy of $6.96 million — will result in 4.83 million new visitors in one year, who will spend $585 million, which will lead to $41 million in new tax revenues.

In addition to focus groups, the Connecticut team solicited feedback from more than 1,500 residents. The DECD’s “What’s Your Connecticut Story?” project, which invites residents and visitors to share what they love most about living, working, and visiting Connecticut, also shaped the campaign.

The marketing initiative was led by New York-based Chowder Inc., an agency specializing in destination marketing. Other firms involved in the project are communications firm Fleishman-Hillard in New York; South Norwalk-based Media Storm; and Waterbury-based research and marketing firm, the Harrison Group.

Bergstrom said the key message is the theme “inspiration.”

“That what the TV ad shows without telling. You’re going to see a dramatic exposure of this message everywhere,” he said.

Online forums on Facebook and You Tube are discussing the branding extensively.

Facebook alone has 101,178 “Likes” as on May 24.

But not everyone is a fan of the how the theme was shown. Images include Gillette Castle, the Mystic coastline, the Goodspeed Opera House and the Essex Steam Train.

Responses to the video on You Tube include: “Well put together a decent production value but a poor representation of CT and what it has to offer” and “It misses so much: the gorgeous Yale campus and culture in New Haven, other shots of cities (Hartford/Stamford).”

When asked why a particular set of images were chosen as opposed to others — including those that capture the vibrant energy — Christine Castonguay, director of branding for the Connecticut Office of Tourism, said these places are unique to the state and these were the images that received the best responses from focus groups.

“But the campaign will include additional imagery that will focus on other locations. We will be going to the northwest corner, for instance, for our fall media campaign,” Castonguay said.

Going forward, challenges include creating a distinctive tourism brand for Connecticut, given other states are rich in history as well.

“The fact that other states have similar heritage is not necessarily a barrier. It’s like two businesses offering the same type of products or services. You don’t have to have a magic bullet that no one else can offer in order to succeed, but you do need to have a more engaging way of packaging the messaging and sustaining the position over a long period of time,” said Grant Copeland, president and chief creative officer at Worx Branding & Advertising in Prospect.

Eric Cavoli, vice president and creative director at Cashman + Katz Integrated Communications in Glastonbury, said the tagline aspires to touch people’s imagination and allow each person to interpret the word “revolutionary” in a way that appeals most to them.

“But the campaign must work hard to execute the concept that the idea of revolutionary is much more than history.”

WV: Three Revolutionary War soldiers honored at ceremony

From NewsandSentinel.com: Three Revolutionary War soldiers honored at ceremony

WILLIAMSTOWN - Those who served the first cause of American freedom were honored Sunday near Williamstown.

Around 30 people attended a ceremony held by the Blennerhassett Chapter of the National Daughters of the American Revolution at Burnt Hill Cemetery to honor three men who served in the American Revolutionary War and ended up spending the remainder of their lives in Wood County as well as all of those who have served the cause of American freedom over the years.

"Welcome one and all to this occasion that is to offer a tribute to all heroes of the American Revolutionary War of 1776 and especially to honor the three patriots resting here who gave service in the war of 1776," said Dina Braniff, Blennerhassett Chapter DAR Regent. "Those men are Private James B. Athey, Private Thomas Douglass and John Gard."

The ceremony Sunday was to honor the men as well as all of the Revolutionary War patriots, Braniff said.

"That is what Memorial Day is for, to honor those who have served to protect the freedoms we all cherish and hold dear today," she said.

Chapter member Christine Brookover was doing research on the family lines of their membership and discovered those men were buried at Burnt Hill Cemetery. It was decided to do a special ceremony to honor these men.

"All three are Wood County residents that fought in the Revolutionary War," Braniff said.

The Captain James Neal Chapter Sons of the American Revolution acted as the color guard at Sunday's ceremony. Representatives of the DAR laid a wreath at each man's grave. Those gathered recited the Pledge of Allegiance and sang "The Star Spangled Banner." Joe Quick played the bagpipes and members of Carlin's Battery D did a cannon salute.

"The ceremonial program here is a patriotic endeavor to perpetuate the spirit of valor and courage shown by the patriots of 1776 and that freedom might prevail throughout the land," Braniff said. "Persons who might pass this way may be reminded to take pride in the heritage of their country by recalling the era of the birth of our nation when men and women suffered and died that freedom bells might proclaim liberty throughout the nation."

Jeff Cline, president of the Captain James Neal Chapter SAR, and member Bob Fish detailed the service of each man, compiled by Brookover.

Athey was born in 1753 and died in 1825. He served in Captain Stephen Ashley's Company and Col. James Wood's Company as part of the 12th Virginia Regiment in the Revolutionary War.

Douglass, of Harrison County, died in 1813. He served in Posey's Company as part of the 5th Virginia Regiment.

Gard was part of the New Jersey Militia serving in Captain Job Brookfield's Brigade of the Continental Team for one year in 1778 in New Jersey.

"We honor these distinguished patriots who epitomize our responsibility to our veterans," Fish said. "We must never forget."

State DAR Regent Charla Nutter said it is important to remember all of those who fought for American freedoms.

"If we don't take the time to remember our patriots, who is going to remember us?" she asked. "We cannot forget what Memorial Day is all about."

No matter when the battles were fought, Braniff said it is important for everyone to remember.

"I think we need to pass it on to others, how important it is, to know the sacrifices that were made and the sacrifices that are still being made today in Iraq and Afghanistan," she said. "Throughout history, our country has made great sacrifices for our public to have the freedoms they have."

I crave your indulgence

My mother's sister is visiting for three days.


My mom's deaf as a post, my dad can't be bothered to get out of his chair, so I will be doing the entertaining - the chauffeuring and the talking and the communicating - for the next three days.


So I'll be posting back here Thursday.


Thanks for your patience.

OP-ED: Even Star Spangled War Is Hell

From Huntington News: OP-ED: Even Star Spangled War Is Hell

In this bicentennial year of the War of 1812, the StarSpangledBaltimore.com website tells us:

"The War of 1812 represents what many see as the definitive end of the American Revolution. A new nation, widely regarded as an upstart, successfully defended itself against the largest, most powerful navy in the world during the maritime assault on Baltimore and Maryland. America's victory over Great Britain confirmed the legitimacy of the Revolution."

But the revolution had ended three decades before 1812, and the choice to launch a new war was made by the U.S. government in Washington, D.C.

In the lead-up to the War of 1812, the British and Americans exchanged attacks along the Canadian border and in the open seas. Native Americans also exchanged attacks with U.S. settlers, although who was invading whom is a question we've never wanted to face. But the choice to launch a full-scale war was not made by the "largest, most powerful navy in the world"; it was made by the national government that we now depict as fighting defensively in Baltimore.

Maritime offenses, skirmishes, and trade disagreements can be resolved diplomatically, continued at the same low level, or expanded into much more massive killing and destruction. These are options our government still faces today. In 1812, the choice of war resulted in the burning of our national capital, the death in action of some 3,800 U.S. and British fighters, and the death of 20,000 U.S. and British from all causes, including disease. About 76 were killed in the Battle of Baltimore, plus another 450 wounded. Nowadays an incident in Baltimore that resulted in that kind of carnage would be described with words other than "exciting," "glorious," and "successful."

And what was gained that could balance out the damage done? Absolutely nothing.

The forgotten goal of the most passionate promoters of launching the War of 1812 had nothing to do with defending Baltimore. The goal was the conquest of Canada. Congressman Samuel Taggart (F., Mass.), in protest of a closed-door congressional debate, published a speech in the Alexandria Gazette on June 24, 1812, in which he remarked:

"The conquest of Canada has been represented to be so easy as to be little more than a party of pleasure. We have, it has been said, nothing to do but to march an army into the country and display the standard of the United States, and the Canadians will immediately flock to it and place themselves under our protection. They have been represented as ripe for revolt, panting for emancipation from a tyrannical Government, and longing to enjoy the sweets of liberty under the fostering hand of the United States."

Taggart went on to present reasons why such a result was by no means to be expected, and of course he was right. But being right is of little value when war fever takes hold.

Vice President Dick Cheney, on March 16, 2003, made a similar claim about Iraqis, despite himself having pointed out its error on television nine years earlier when he had explained why the United States had not invaded Baghdad during the Gulf War. (Cheney, at that time, may have left some factors unstated, such as the real fear back then of chemical or biological weapons, as compared with the pretense of that fear in 2003.) Cheney said of his coming second attack on Iraq in 2003:

"Now, I think things have gotten so bad inside Iraq, from the standpoint of the Iraqi people, my belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators."

A year earlier, Ken Adelman, former arms control director for President Ronald Reagan, said "liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk."

This expectation, whether a pretense or sincere and truly stupid, didn't work out in Iraq, and didn't work out two centuries ago in Canada.

The Soviets went into Afghanistan in 1979 with the same stupid expectation of being welcomed as friends, and the United States repeated the same mistake there beginning in 2001. Of course, such expectations would never work out for a foreign army in the United States either, no matter how admirable the people invading us might be or how miserable they might find us.

What if Canada and Iraq had indeed welcomed U.S. occupations? Would that have produced anything to outweigh the horror of the wars? Norman Thomas, author of War: No Glory, No Profit, No Need, (1935) speculated as follows:

"[S]uppose the United States in the War of 1812 had succeeded in its very blundering attempt to conquer all or part of Canada. Unquestionably we should have school histories to teach us how fortunate was the result of that war for the people of Ontario and how valuable a lesson it finally taught the British about the need for enlightened rule! Yet, to-day the Canadians who remain within the British Empire would say they have more real liberty than their neighbors to the south of the border!"

If our culture survives until 2203 can we expect a bicentennial celebration of the Battle of Baghdad? And if so, will alternative perspectives -- such as the one I like to call reality -- be included?

If we were wiser we would celebrate the many years in which Baltimore has not known war. Frederick Douglass learned how to read in Baltimore. Activists struggling nonviolently for justice have a rich history in Baltimore.

Can we get beyond the national war anthem to any of the many things truly worth celebrating? 

Victory Center successor gets a new name

From Virginia Gazette: Victory Center successor gets a new name
JAMESTOWN -- Along with a physical transformation of the Yorktown Victory Center will come a new name – “American Revolution Museum at Yorktown” – adopted Thursday by the Board of Trustees of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation.

Recommended by a board naming study task force, the new name will be implemented upon completion of the museum replacement, and in the meantime the Yorktown Victory Center will continue in operation as a museum of the American Revolution.

Construction is expected to start in the second half of 2012. The project includes an 80,000-square-foot structure that will encompass expanded exhibition galleries, classrooms and support functions, and reorganization of the 22-acre site, located at Route 1020 and the Colonial Parkway in Yorktown.

Total cost of building construction and renovations to the site and living-history areas, to be funded primarily through the sale of Virginia Public Building Authority bonds, is estimated at $46 million. Private donations to the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, Inc., will support elements of gallery and outdoor exhibits and educational resources.

“The new name highlights the core offering of the museum, American Revolution history,” said Frank B. Atkinson, who chaired the naming study task force of 11 members of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation and Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, Inc., boards, “and the inclusion of the word ‘Yorktown’ provides a geographical anchor. "Selected names were tested with Yorktown Victory Center visitors and reviewed by a trademark attorney and branding consultant.”

The Yorktown Victory Center opened in 1976 as one of three Virginia centers for the national Bicentennial. In 36 years of continuous operation, the museum has hosted 5.3 million visitors and has served more than 900,000 students with curriculum-based structured educational programs. In the early 1990s, the museum’s focus was broadened to encompass events that led to the Revolutionary War and the subsequent formation of a new national government and to interpret the Revolution from diverse points of view and experiences.

Critical short-term exhibit renovations were completed in 2006 in time for major commemorations in which the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation had a key role – the 225th anniversary of the decisive American victory at Yorktown and 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, America’s first permanent English colony.

In 2007 the Foundation board adopted a master plan to address long-term exhibit, building and operation issues. The Virginia General Assembly authorized funding the following year, including $1.6 million from Foundation-generated revenues, for environmental studies and architectural and exhibit design planning.

The new museum building will be positioned on the site with an entrance that will serve as a focal point for arriving visitors. Featuring museum galleries with immersive learning environments, interactive exhibits and period artifacts, the structure also will house classroom and event space, visitor services, gift shop, and support functions and will provide improved access to the museum’s outdoor re-created Continental Army encampment and Revolutionary-period farm. The two outdoor areas will be expanded and relocated.

The Yorktown Victory Center will remain in operation during construction. The existing buildings will be demolished after the new building is complete, and new permanent gallery exhibits will be fabricated and installed after the new building is in use. Upon completion of the entire project, with the new exhibition galleries ready for visitors, “American Revolution Museum at Yorktown” will be the museum’s name.

Knox Trail walk spurs examination of town's role in American Revolution

From Telegraph Towns: Knox Trail walk spurs examination of town's role in American Revolution

The passage of two magazine editors from New York through Leicester as part of their recent walk along the Knox Trail from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston has caused local historians to do some serious thinking about Leicester’s part in the American Revolution.

J. Donald Lennerton Jr., chairman of the Leicester Historical Commission, said that Leicester residents had a major part in the fight to drive the British out of what became the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and that many of those residents are buried in Rawson Brook Cemetery, on Main Street just east of the Castle Restaurant.

“Some historians say there may be as many as 600 people buried there,” Mr. Lennerton said, “but I think it’s more likely 200 or 300 people.”

He said, however, that it will never be known who most of these people were.

“In those days, if you found a good-looking rock somewhere on your property, you saved it thinking it would make a good headstone or footstone some day, and when people were buried, the stones were placed at each end of the body, but with no indication of who was buried there,” he said.

Among the people he knows are buried there is William Henshaw, one of the leaders of Leicester’s Minutemen chapter. A member of that chapter came up with the phrase by which the group became known. “He said every community should have a group of men ready to leave at a minute’s notice to drive the British out of Boston,” Mr. Lennerton said.

Also among those buried in Rawson Brook Cemetery is Stukey Watson, who wrote a book about what life was like for women in the early 1800s. Mr. Lennerton said the book wasn’t very popular at the time she wrote it, but recent historians have begun to appreciate it.

The Knox Trail is remembered today as the route the Minutemen used to bring cannon and other weapons from New York state to the Boston area, which was occupied by the British at the time. The Minutemen had reached the hills of Dorchester Heights above Boston, but were waiting until the weapons arrived before attacking.

Interestingly enough, they never had to attack. When the Earl in charge of the British forces in Boston discovered that the cannon had arrived, he knew his army would be destroyed, so he ordered them to leave Boston. Boston was evacuated without a shot fired. This took place on March 17, which has been called Evacuation Day.

“There are lots of people who say that since that was also St. Patrick’s Day, the Irish politicians in Boston just found a way to get the day off by calling it Evacuation Day, which is a legal holiday in Suffolk County,” Mr. Lennerton said. That is not an unusual situation in Massachusetts, which is the only state in the country that recognizes Patriot’s Day as a holiday.

“Also interesting is that many people believe they couldn’t have attacked the British army with their cannons because they hadn’t brought any ammunition.”

Now that we’ve taken care of Evacuation Day and Patriot’s Day, let’s move to the next holiday down the line — Memorial Day.

Bruce Swett, chairman of the Leicester Memorial Day Committee, sent along an invitation for any group or organization that would like to participate in the annual Memorial Day Committee observances, May 28.

The parade will form at 10 a.m. at Memorial School, which is just off Pleasant Street. The parade will start at 10:30 a.m. and proceed up Pleasant Street to the Common, where services will be held.
If you wish to participate, contact Mr. Swett at (508) 892-9238 or the Cherry Valley American Legion Post at (508) 892-9029.

The Leicester Senior Center has a new organization for women who like knitting and crocheting, but aren’t interested in the spinning and weaving activities in which the Fiber Group is involved.
The new group is called Golden Needles and meets at 11:30 a.m. every Wednesday at the Senior Center, 40 Winslow Ave. Group members are urged to spend a half-hour in the fun activity of knitting and crocheting, then stay for lunch and remain afterward for some of the other activities the center offers.

You don’t have to have a reservation for the Golden Needles Group, but if you wish to stay for lunch, you must call a day ahead at (508) 892-7204. The cost of the luncheon is $2. All you have to bring for the Golden Needles Group is yarn, needles and crochet hooks.

New marker commemorates Revolutionary POW march

From the Daily Progress: New marker commemorates Revolutionary POW march

With their flesh stinging from the cold, and their road-sore feet covered in deep snow, what met the eyes of the prisoners at journey’s end was almost too much to bear.

For nearly three months the British soldiers and their German mercenary counterparts had been on the march from an interment camp near Boston. Now, more than 600 miles later, they were at their new home just west of Charlottesville.

It was Jan. 16, 1779, and for the approximately 3,750 prisoners of war the date would mark a low point in their lives. Their expectation of being billeted in heated huts was cruelly shattered by reality.

“When the prisoners arrived only half the huts that were supposed to have been built had been built,” said Phil Williams, president of the Virginia Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.

“Half of those that had been built did not have roofs. And it was uncharacteristically cold.

“The prisoners were in grave condition, having been prisoners for nearly two years prior to being moved south. About three years ago I started doing some reasonably serious research on this subject, and found it to be one of the most interesting stories in Charlottesville history.”

Williams was instrumental in the creation and placement of the new roadside historical marker that was dedicated Saturday on Barracks Road, near where the camp had been. The marker provides a thumbnail sketch of the historical significance of the “Albemarle Barracks” POW camp and hints at the “great hardships” the prisoners endured there.

“The marker fits in the context of what the Sons of the American Revolution is all about,” said Williams who is also a past president of the local Thomas Jefferson Chapter of the SAR.

“We are dedicated to patriotic and historical education. We work to remind our citizens of the sacrifices that were made, and the extraordinary American experiment that was launched by a relatively small number of people against all odds in the founding of this country.

“With the marker we wanted to honor the soldiers who fought honorably for their side in the conflict. And we wanted to recognize those who died on American soil.

“And we also wanted to recognize those who at the end of the war remained, and became a part of America.”

It wasn’t just male POWs who arrived here on that brutal winter day in 1779. Accompanying them on the long march were wives and children.

Gen. George Washington had ordered wagons to transport the women and children as well as the sick. But adult male prisoners had walked every step of the way.

The weather stayed decent as the long columns of prisoners moved through Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Then during the last leg through Virginia the temperature plunged and snow began to fall.

“There could not have been a more unlucky concurrence of circumstances than when the troops first came,” Thomas Jefferson wrote about the arrival of the POWs.

“The barracks were unfinished for want of laborers, the spell of weather, the worst ever known within the memory of man, no stores of bread laid in, the roads by the weather and the number of wagons soon rendered impassable.”

A young British officer, Thomas Anburey, was among the prisoners. He found himself at a loss for words when he tried to express the conditions they found here.

“On our arrival at Charlottesville, no pen can describe the scene of misery and confusion that ensued,” Anburey wrote. “This famous place we had heard so much of, consisted only of a courthouse, one tavern and about a dozen houses.”

Officers like Anburey had money and were allowed to secure lodging outside the camp. Enlisted men were not, and he termed their situation “truly horrible.”

For the first six days all the POWs had to eat was a little meal made from Indian corn. It quickly became clear to the captive men that they were going to have to play a major role in their own survival.

“When those soldiers arrived in such tattered condition, their heart and pride made them work like madmen,” Williams said. “They eventually cleared an area six miles in circumference.

“In addition to building several hundred huts, they also built two churches — one Anglican and one Lutheran. They also built a tavern, theater and a recreation center with a billiard hall.

“A German officer was paroled temporarily in order to go over the mountain with a servant to buy tools and seeds. When he returned with these things it went a long way in helping the men save themselves.”

As Williams learned during his research, the story leading up to the POWs transfer from Massachusetts to Virginia is also a fascinating episode in the nation’s history. The British and their German mercenaries, commonly referred to as Hessians, had been captured as a result of the American victory at the Battle of Saratoga on Oct. 17, 1777.

It had been a win for the Americans, but not decisive enough for them to be in a position to demand an “unconditional surrender.” What was agreed upon was a “convention” surrender, which was expected to result in a mass parole of the British forces.

“The original intent was that all the soldiers would pledge never to return to North America to reengage in the conflict,” said Williams, a graduate of the University of Virginia.

“The prisoners spent almost two years near Boston while the British and the Continental Congress dickered about what to do with them. General Washington was afraid of the prospect that these soldiers on parole would return to the fight.

“When an impasse was reached, the British stopped supplying food and clothing to the prisoners. That’s the reason they were marched to what was considered at the time to be an agricultural backwater.”

What was needed was a tract of land that would support vegetable gardens and a nearby dependable source of water. Col. William Harvie, a Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress, thought he had just the spot.

Harvie owned a large piece of land just north of Ivy Creek. When he offered to make the land available, Jefferson seconded the motion and the prisoners were soon on their way.

“This is a story that had local, state, national and international implications,” Williams said. “The details of the story, I think, should be better known especially in the context of this year’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of Charlottesville.

“When the war ended in 1783 most of the British returned to England. But a large number of the Germans remained in America, because they felt at home.

“They became some of the first citizens of this new nation. Many families in this area, on both sides of the Blue Ridge mountains, are their descendents.”

In dusty library, a link to heroic past

From NewsTelegram.com: In dusty library, a link to heroic past
PROVIDENCE — Day after day, a tall, shy woman weaves her way unnoticed through the earnest and learned campus swirl of Brown University. She enters the hush of a library, then promptly vanishes from sight.

Down goes Marie Malchodi, 48, who attended but never graduated from Brown, down to the library's subterranean warrens, where she works as a "book conservation technician." She sweeps her long dark hair into a bun, pierces it with a paint brush, and starts her day, caring for ancient books and ephemera that are sensitive to the touch.

A few weeks ago, Malchodi opened yet another leather-bound book, one of more than 300,000 rare volumes in the hold of the John Hay Library. With surgical precision, she turned the pages of a medical text once owned by Solomon Drowne, class of '73 (1773, that is.). And there, in the back, she found a piece of paper depicting the baptism of Jesus. It was signed:

"P. Revere Sculpt."

Ye gods! Had Marie Malchodi, of Cranston, R.I., book conservation technician, just made contact with Paul Revere, of Boston, silversmith? Revere, who knew of the fiery need to share vital information, would have appreciated Malchodi's galloping reaction, which was:

''I have to show this to somebody."

Malchodi is more spiritually attuned to books than her Orwellian job title might suggest. She came to Brown as an undergraduate in the early 1980s, but life wound up demanding her study. Soon she was working in a College Hill bookstore rather than reading in a college library, and making cabinets rather than writing papers about her beloved Romantics.

One day she saw an advertisement for a bookbinding and conservation job at the university. She has been here ever since - though mostly underground - inspecting old books, submitting to their long-ago stories and vanishing to where now is then and then is now.

In the ensuing 20 years, gray has come to her hair and a husband and twin girls have come to her life, yet wasn't it all just yesterday? When Wordsworth thrilled her heart? When Wordsworth lived?

A year ago, Malchodi was assigned to check the condition of thousands of rare books about to be shipped to an off-campus annex. In a basement room made smaller and louder by the air ducts looming from the ceiling, she tended to her task, sitting on a stool set beside a collection of dusty, rolled-up maps, all needing to be vacuumed, and all with titles like "Madeira and Mamore Railway Plan of the Rio Madeira at San Antonio."

The job sometimes took longer than necessary, because of that tendency of hers to get lost in things: illustrations in children's books, brittle newspaper clippings, and, especially, handwritten notes from the long dead. She feels the rush of intimacy as the distance in time collapses.

Now here, on a small cart, were another 177 books, all from the collection of Drowne, a physician and polymath who distinguished himself during the American Revolution. "Watts's Logick." ''Kalm's Travels." ''Plague and Yellow Fever."

Next up: an 1811 edition of "The Modern Practice of Physic," by Dr. Robert Thomas, a champion of purgatives as a cure for disease. Malchodi examined the red leather cover, the gold tooling on the spine. Then she pulled out that piece of paper.

The engraving, titled "Buried With Him By Baptism," shows John the Baptist raising Jesus from the River Jordan under a blazing sun, while people in vaguely Colonial attire watch from shore. And in the lower right corner appears the name of an American Revolution icon.

Who knows how long this papery wisp lay hidden in the musty stacks at the century-old Hay Library? In the section reserved for the history of science. Near a microscope and a skull. Across from a copy of Darwin's monograph on the "sub-class Cirripedia" (Barnacles, that is.).

What Malchodi knew was that she had to sound the alarm. With some hesitancy - "because I don't want to bother her" - she approached the raised desk of Rachel Lapkin, a library materials conservator who was immersed in stabilizing the leather of an 18th century Chinese dictionary.

Lapkin, who actually enjoys her colleague's enthusiasm, studied the print and found it fascinating, even bizarre. "I think we should look into that," she said.

The basement brain trust decided that the print must be shown to Richard Noble, the rare books cataloger, whose office takes some doing to reach. So, with the discovery safely inside Thomas' celebration of purgatives, Malchodi began her journey through an underground labyrinth, carrying the volume as a deacon might carry the Bible.

Out of her basement work space and past some lockers. Past discarded wooden catalog cabinets. Down some steps to the subbasement. Past some metal book shelves and a "Do Not Remove" sign. Down more steps and through the tunnel that crosses beneath College Street. Up to Noble's office, in Cataloging and Acquisitions. Carefully carrying that Revere - if it was a Revere.

And Noble had stepped away for lunch.

An hour or so later, Malchodi returned. "She said, 'I found this,' and presented it to me with a big smile," Noble recalled. "She let me discover what was inside. She let me have that much fun."

Noble's first reaction was to say that the engraving was just crude enough to be a Revere. Then he held the engraving up to the light as a test. It had the faintly ribbed look of paper produced from the slurry pulp made of rags, signaling that it was mostly likely handmade paper from the 18th century.

Yes. A Revere.

This could very well mean that the patriot - who had nurtured t he seeds of rebellion with his engraving of the Boston Massacre of 1770 - had cut the scene into a flat copper plate; filled the grooves with ink, perhaps by pressing it in with the palm of his hand; wiped away the excess with circular sweeps of a small cloth; and used a hand-operated press to produce the engraving.

''That was a nice moment," Noble said.

It turned out that Malchodi had uncovered only the fifth known copy of this particular engraving, which is "a bit of a curiosity in Revere's work," according to Lauren Hewes, the curator of graphic arts at the American Antiquarian Society, in Worcester, Mass. She said that while Revere carefully documented his prosperous and prolific career as an artisan, he made no mention of this piece, and so the exact date of the engraving is unclear.

''It sits outside of what we think of when we think of Paul Revere," she said. "It wasn't all patriotic topics - he did a lot more than that."

How the engraving came to be in the possession of Solomon Drowne is still being researched; his descendants have some theories. And its monetary worth is probably only a few thousand dollars, but that is hardly what matters.

''It's really a great moment," Hewes said. "That moment of discovery."

Malchodi made her discovery on a Thursday. On that Friday, she was back at work beneath the verdant Brown campus. Inspecting old books, vacuuming old maps, opening herself to time's collapse.

Eagle Scout Organizes Rededication of Cemetery

From WYTV: Eagle Scout Organizes Rededication of Cemetery
Revolutionary War veterans were remembered with a special ceremony on Saturday, all organized by a high school student.

The Northwest Brigade of the American Revolution led the march to the Olde Dutch Mill Cemetery, in Lake Milton, where the Revolution War Veteran Memorial was rededicated.

Eagle Scout David Corll, of Berlin Center, began organizing the event by putting up new fencing, shrubbery and flag poles to honor the military. All the hard work allowed Corll to fulfill his final Eagle Scout requirement.

The cemetery is the oldest in Lake Milton. A Revolutionary War veteran is buried there, as well as, the founding fathers of Milton Township.